Research & Data

Texas Employment Update

The Texas economy continued to expand. Texas added 13,600 jobs in December. In 2011, the state gained 211,600 jobs (Table 1).

Table 1
Monthly Job Growth in Texas

Number of jobs added

Annualized growth rate

Total 2011

211,600

2.03

December 2011

13,600

1.55

November 2011

18,700

2.14

October 2011

400

0.05

September 2011

12,100

1.38

August 2011

4,500

0.51

July 2011

27,700

3.19

June 2011

25,200

2.91

May 2011

-4,500

-0.51

April 2011

44,100

5.16

March 2011

36,200

4.23

February 2011

15,600

1.81

January 2011

18,000

2.09

Monthly Job Growth in Texas
SOURCES: Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonal and other adjustments by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. View full data series.

The Dallas Fed improves the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) payroll employment estimates for Texas by incorporating preliminary benchmarks into the data in a more timely manner and by using a two-step seasonal adjustment technique. Current Dallas Fed data are benchmarked though second quarter 2011. BLS data are benchmarked through third quarter 2010.

Types of Jobs Being Created in Texas
Chart 1 below provides a breakdown of employment growth by sector since the start of 2011, listing each sector by its weight in the Texas employment mix.

Rate of Job Growth
To gauge the relative strength of Texas job growth, one of the simplest and most informative ways is comparing the rate of job growth in Texas relative to the U.S. However, those figures alone do not tell us how much Texas is contributing to national performance. Another option is calculating what U.S. job growth would be without Texas. For example, 2011 annualized Texas job growth was 2.0 percent, compared with a U.S. rate of 1.3 percent. Without the Texas gains, U.S. employment would have expanded 1.1 percent (Table 2).

Table 2
Annualized Growth Rates in 2011 (December 2011)

Percent

U.S. (national survey data)

1.3

Texas (Dallas Fed data)

2.0

U.S. without Texas gains

1.1

SOURCES: Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonal and other adjustments by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Note

Data may not match previously published numbers due to data revisions.